Sunday, November 8, 2009

North-East!! Connection Needed!

Folks, do you know the capital of Lakshadeep?


Ever thought about going to Manipur to witness the eye-catching beauty?


Ever thought about Andaman's coral-reefs(rather than the Oz ones) aside remembering it for Tsunami, instead of the ones near Australian island? 


Ever..ever thought of hitting Dzukou Valley for a break? Its beautiful! These are our assets too..
But why don't we mostly think about them? Because we don't get to hear them..even talk about them. No News channels actually throw lights to what is happening in N-E, in Lakshadeep, in Andaman, Leh, Ladakh, apart from a natural disaster or some elections. Not even a weather report! Big Boss mein yeh hua, Dhoni ki nayi hair-style.


Tibet's spiritual leader Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal makes news, because this is where China is involved. But how many really know 'Tawang' is the district in Arunachal Pradesh, which China calls it disputed & demands it as there land??

 
"Boss, whats the seat number you are alloted with?..Mine says 14" - I ask a guy finding him on seat number 14.  "Mines 14 too" -he replies. "Cripes! these bus wallas, I told them I wanted a window seat, they played foul again"- I think hacked off  by this act.


Going up to the driver I tell him, how can he give two persons the same seat? "kya bhaiya, uske goddi mein bethun kya jaake?"
"Sir, why dont u take up 13, next to 14"- he responds calmly.








"I obviosuly will have to.. "-my brainwaves suggests! I return back to the row & make myself comfortable on 13. "Hi..dis is Shashi" -I smile & greet my fellow. He poping his eyes out of his long hair, anyone would guess out, He from North-Eastern India with his chinese cast.


"Hey, my name is Bijju"- he replies.
"You must be from North-East? your looks suggest so"
"Ha ha..Yeah..I'm..M from Manipur".
 "Thts cool, so what u doing here in Pune studying or working?"
"Well, M studying M.A from Pune Univ." " What do u do? u working here?"
"No I work in Ahmedabad, just came to spend my weekend with pals, they have benn calling for long"
"Great, Ahmedabad is a great place, I studied in Baroda, M.S. University"..I love that place"
"And what about Manipur? Don't u go there?"
"I do..but its 3 years since I have been there..Its far..have no good educational instiutes, We have to come to other parts of the country for career."


This just reminds me of all the North-eastern people I get to meet, same woes! This small conversation just fizzed my brain-waves when I was listening to an Indo-China debate on NDTV.



North-Eastern India comprises of 7 states (also known as the seven sisters): Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, and Nagaland. North-Eastern people and the place itself seems very beautiful to be in! India has got so much in it after all! It's almost a new place to be in. But, still... this part of the country is always spoken off by insurgencies, tensions between Central Govt. & states & ethnic groups.










Our government always has an habit of not working! If some one just would care enough about the Tourism & development of almost every part of country.. this nation would obviosuly be a better place to be in.


What does the Govt. really needs to act on? Just developing infrastrucure; mapping infrastrucutre in a way that it gets well connected to rest part of the country. I haven't seen a train or heard of  as usch as rfequemt flights going to Imphal or Gangtok! It's really demoralisisng! The place is boosted with so much of green nature and stuffs!




The reason for growing insurgency & rebel in India is lack of care for people in that part.. whether its growing maoists in W.B or Jharkand..they are what they are because of ill-treatment catered to them.

North-East always seems unexplored. It always seems u being to a new world! How can we forget & be proud that this part of the country is ours??


Its a de-facto that out government from then to now, has actually never worked... every Indian pays tax( India is the 2nd populous country in the world), we got pleanty of money then, N-E pays tax too, like Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad or Hyderabad does, then why isnt sum1 actually concernd about linking N-E to the rest of India?


If Britons could do it then, why can't we now? And then we talk about being High-tech. Instead of thinking about landing on moon(LoL)..why dont we actually thinking about linking every part of the country into main-stream?



Are the terrains leading to North-East as difficult? Leave North-East aside, why isnt Rajasthan well-connected bywith railways? Why is there a meter-gauge leading to Bikaner from Jaipur? (and that too the Britishers made it), why isn't railways connecting every part of Maharashtra? Why are we running out of roads in M.P.? Why are some parts of Orissa still living in dark-ages? Why a mineral-rich state like Chattisgarh has unemployment & poverty? Why isn't anything done for farmers in Vidharbha, considering India still relies on Agro and despite the fact that Gujarat, which was considered a non - cotton growing zone, is now able to cultivate cotton ( beacuse of some hard work shown by the ministry and the planning of farmers there) more than Vidharbha where farmers are comitting sucidies? These look big problems, which in real they aren't, only just a glimse & few things in place..and we are actually out of it!



China, which we obviously take up as villian, has actually brought Tibet into the main-stream Chinese map. Reason? they brought railways & roadways to Tibet. WHY IS INDIA NOT WELL CONNECTED? India accuses the China of sponsoring regional tensions, and we know how China is eyeing our few beautious North-Eastern states that lies on it's borders, and we will be to blame ourselves if everything isnt okay, because we havent ever ourselves cared about everything that we have. Because we have it, we dont realize it's importance. Indian and state governments' concerted effort to raise the living standards of the people in these regions have started.  However, militancy still exists within the region. Among the rebellions in the area are Tripura Rebellion and Assam Conflict. We cannot blame any one else, How can we? Our Govt. keeps ignoring & passing buck, and the mole turns a hole.

I atleast believe, we can actually start thinking & be proud of a rich North-Eastern India which actually belongs to us!


Proud to be an Indian!








11 comments:

Sambit Sabyasachi said...

Really a good one. Similar minded ppl shud b brought under one roof to effect anything. I have no expectation from Govt. Whatever ppl can do, they shud do. Today's Govt. only focuses targetting on opposition and the oposition does the same, however now-a-days they too weak to do that also. So, I think ppl rallies and stages may work out.

Shashi Shekhar Vyas said...

Thanx Sambit.. didnt expect a stranger to push in a similar thoughtful comment!! But this is what internet is all about!! It holds assets too!!

I do appreciate & go by what u said!

Anonymous said...

i do appreciate the writters words...its true that these remote places are really amazing destinations of India, and very few people care to visit them. and even media is also not showing any interest in promoting these destinations...

Unknown said...

The FUKING Corruption is actually Killing INDIA!
We the citizens have to stand up against it..

sunni said...

shashi...indeed a very thoughtful peice. have you ever been to the northeastern parts of india? you should make a trip with friends. train does not reach every states but there's mostly daily flights to all capitals there, maybe except arunachal.

i love reading this. found it accidentally but great job. write more

akoijam sunita

Shashi Shekhar Vyas said...

@ Akoijam Sunita- Thanx Sunita! M glad u liked it! No I havent been to N-E yet, but I do know its beauteous to be in! I hope I d there some day. People from there seems in touch with the latest trends & are always upbeat! Thats what made me write this, because the connectivity is poor to the parts of N-E, & I just dont find a reason why.
Anyways, Thanks, it was encouraging!

Unknown said...

Hi Thanks for so much of concerned about NE. if mainlanders were like u then there wud be no racism ,alienation etc for people of NE. I really liked ur blog on this. Keep the good work going and ha...visit NE or u lost something!

Shashi Shekhar Vyas said...

@ James:- Thanks for appreciating my work! I always look forward to visitng places in India! Cheerio! :)

Unknown said...

Its really a irony that our naturally beautiful NE region has faced step treatment from the Centre. Even though Assam specially Guwahati has dynamically improved in the last ten years or so. The electronic media has played a very vital role in improving things. Now Guwahati is no lesser than a MAHA NAGRI. I m proud of my state.

mantaw said...

ironic...lets start with the people....the first thing i hear when walking the streets of kolkata is ...'hey chinese'.....can't blame them...they are ignorant...bt when the same thing is said by school going students,not to mention well educated elders....i kind of get thinking...maybe they need to go back and study more about india.....hell...! we studied abt india,the same thing but we never tag them...like people tag us 'north eastern'...a person from nagaland is as alien as to you as it is to me....sad but true...i hope the people's perception changes for the better..

Shashi Shekhar Vyas said...

@ mantaw: Thanks mantaw! I dont really know if you getting to read this comment back, but I apologize sincerely to rspond late, just got to see what u wrote today.
Furthermore, I agree to what u hv said. We are diversified and must be proud of it, We are fun-loving ethnics, but it's important to realize too.